Book of Genesis

The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament. Chapters 1 to 11 cover primeval history, while chapters 12 to 50 cover the ancestral history of humanity. The Book of Genesis begins with God's creation of the Earth, and describes the creation of humanity, God's decision to destroy humanity with the flood, Noah's re-establishment of the relationship between man and God, the prehistory of the Israelites, Abraham's journey to Canaan, the descent of the Israelites into Egypt under Jacob's son Joseph, and the events leading up to the Book of Exodus. The stories in the book were passed down orally before being written down by Moses between 1450 and 1400 BC.

Chapter 1
The Book of Genesis begins with "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." God created light, and separated light from the darkness. He called the light Day, and the darkness Night, and there was evening and then there was morning, comprising a whole day. He then created a firmament in the midst of the waters, calling the firmament Heaven, as well as creating a second day. He then had the waters under the heavens be gathered into one place, and created dry land, calling the dry land Earth, and called the waters the seas. God then created plants and vegetation, ending the third day. He proceeded to create the stars in the sky, the Sun and the Moon, and ended the fourth day. On the fifth day, he brought forth swarms of living creatures such as birds and "great sea monsters", telling them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." He then proceeded to bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and beasts of the earth. He then made man in his image, after his likeness, and "let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." He then told men to "be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." He ended his sixth day, and he proceeded to rest on the seventh day from all his work, blessing and hallowing the seventh day.

Chapter 2
With the heavens and the earth finished, God formed man of dust from the ground, breathed life into him, and made man a living being. He then planted a garden in Eden in the east, and he grew trees (such as the tree of life and the tree of good and evil). A river flowed out of Eden to water his garden, and it divided into four rivers: Pishon (flowing around the whole land of Havilah, where there was gold, bdellium, and onyx), Gihon (flowing around Cush), Tigris (flowing east of Assyria), and the Euphrates. God took the man and put him in the garden to till it and keep it, and he told him that he could freely eat of every tree but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, telling him that he would die if he ate of it. God them formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and the man gave names to the beasts and birds. However, the man could not find a helper for him, so God caused a deep sleep to fall on him and took one of his ribs, from which he created a woman. They became known as Adam and Eve, and they lived naked and unashamed.

Chapter 3
However, a serpent tempted Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, telling her that she would not die, and that she would be like God if she ate from it. Eve took of its fruit and ate, and also gave some to Adam, who also ate. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons, and they then heard the sound of God walking in the garden, causing them to hide. God called out to Adam, asking where he was, and Adam told God that he was hiding because he was naked. God knew that, because Adam judged for himself that he was naked, he had eaten from the tree. Adam then told God that Eve had given him the fruit, and Eve told God that the serpent had beguiled him. God told the serpent that it should eat dust for the rest of its life, and God decided to punish the woman by subjecting her to the pain of childbirth and the rule of man, while Adam was cursed with the inevitability of death. Adam and Eve were then given garments of skins and were clothed, and God sent Adam fort from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. He was driven out of the Garden, and cherubim were placed at the east of the Garden; he also placed a flaming sword to guard the Tree of Life.

Chapter 4
Adam and Eve reprodduced and bore Cain and Abel, with Abel keeping sheep and Cain tilling the ground. Cain brought to God an offering of fruit, while Abel offered God the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. God had regard for Abel, but not for Cain, causing Cain to grow angry. God then told Cain to master his desire, and that he would be accepted if he did well. Cain told Abel to go out into the field, and Cain proceeded to kill him there. God then said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?", to which Cain responded, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" God discovered Abel's death, and he proceeded to curse Cain with being a fugitive and a wanderer on the Earth, but also promised that anyone who slew Cain would have seven times the vengeance of God. God put a mark on Cain to threaten anyone who would attempt to kill him, and Cain went to "the land of Nod" (meaning taking up a wandering life). Cain knew his wife, and they bore a son named Enoch, after whom a city was named. Enoch fathered Irad, who fathered Mehujael, who fathered Methushael, who fathered Lamech; Lamech took two wives: Adah and Zilah. Adah bore Jabal (the father of tent-dwelling nomads) and Jubal (the father of pipers), while Zillah bore Tubal-cain (the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron) and Na'amah. Lamech told his wives that he had killed a man for wounding him and a young man for striking him, and that they would be avenged seventy-seven-fold.

Chapter 5
Adam then had another child with Eve, named Seth, who bore Enos. Adam, who had fathered Seth at the age of 130 years, died at the age of 930; outside of the Bible, it is said that Eve died six days after her husband. Seth had Enos at 105, and he lived until the age of 912 years; he had several other sons and daughters. At 90, Enos fathered Kenan and several other children, and he died at the age of 905. Kenan fathered Mahalalel at 70, and he died at the age of 910. Mahalalel fathered Jared at 65 years, and he lived until the age of 895. Jared was 162 when he fathered Enoch, and Jared lived until the age of 962. Enoch was 65 years old when he fathered Methuselah, and he was taken by God. Methuselah was 187 when he fathered Lamech, and Methuselah died at the age of 969. Lamech was 182 when he had Noah, saying that God had lifted Noah from cursed ground to relieve humans from their work and toil. Lamech died at the age of 777 years, and Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth at the age of 500.

Chapter 6
When man began to multiply on the ground, and daughters were born to them, men realized the beauty of the daughters and took to wife such of them as they chose. God said, "My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years". God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that mankind was growing evil. God said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." However, he favored Noah, and, because Noah walked with God, he saw him as a righteous man.

God saw the earth as corrupt and filled with violence, and he told Noah that he had determined to make an end of all flesh, planning to destroy them with the earth. He then told Noah to make an ark of gopher wood, make rooms inside the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch; he even specified the proportions. He then warned Noah that he would bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which was the breath of life from under heaven, and that everything on earth would die. He then told Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives to go with him, and to bring two of every other living thing (male and female) and every sort of food onto the ark. Noah did exactly as God had commanded.